Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

Under the Weather

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Friday when I took the dogs for a walk I noticed Sampson has been licking at his paw again. 🙁

Licker He had licked it so much, I was afraid another day or two of licking and it would be bleeding.

Unfortunately his appointment with the Holistic Vet is not until the 12th of April, so I decided to wrap it.

I went into the medicine box and lo and behold I found a bottle of Vetericyn VF for wound and skin care.  The directions say to apply three to four times per day, you can use either with or without wrapping.

I opted to wrap it, to keep him from licking it off.

BooBoo He doesn’t care for it at all, but it keeps him from licking it.

I’ve watched him closely both in the house and on our walks.  He is not favoring his paw, he’s not limping or complaining about it.  In fact he is running and jumping as he always has.

I’m not sure exactly what is going on with it, whether it hurts and he’s very good at hiding his discomfort, or if he’s licking out of habit.  But until we know, I’ll be keeping a sharp eye (and a bandage) on it.

We also found out our friend Cali from The Daily Dog Blog is feeling under the weather.  If you have a minute stop by and show her Mama Julie so love.  She’s really worried about Cali.

Feel better soon Cali!  We love you!!

Co-Hosted Follow-Up Friday, March 22, 2013

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Welcome to the latest edition of co-hosted Follow-up Friday.

https://www.heartlikeadog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/follow-up-friday.jpg

My co-hostess this week has co-hosted with me many times. I learn so much from her, and I love reading about her training sessions with her brown dawgs.

What more can I say about her that I haven’t already said?

How about thank you for co-hosting. 🙂

Don’t forget to stop by and visit the 2 Brown Dawgs blog to check out their Follow-Up Friday post.

SDS – Author’s Note

How reassuring to know I’m not the only one with spoiled dogs. 🙂  Truthfully those nights don’t happen that often, but when they do…well you know.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day – Author’s Note

I found a delicious gluten-free soda bread that complemented our meal perfectly.  I timed it pretty well so the bread was still slightly warm and the butter melted.

YUMMO

Still looking forward to Sunday’s corned beef hash and egg breakfast!

Counter Surfing 101 – Author’s Note

I’ve said it before, that dog has mad skills.

For those that asked, no she did not get sick.  She is known as the dog with the cast iron stomach.

When she first came to live with our pack she had a sensitive type stomach, but once she got used to having two squares a day with lots of treats and a snack, there isn’t much that upsets her stomach.

Of course, there are exceptions.

One time she ate 3/4 pound of butter, wrappers and all.  I thought she’d be hurling or shitting like a goose, but no.

She did drink a lot of water and I watched her like a hawk the entire day.  Finally after a few hours she vomited the tiniest bit of foam.

No, the time she really hurled was after she’d cleaned up a good portion of the yard.

Talk about vile.

She cleared the house on that one.

Tasty Cubes – Update

The dogs love the little frozen bits of whatever they’re getting but I won’t be buying any more Dorot spices. I did not realize that these little cubes contain soybean oil.

Remember the post where I told you I’d share the healthy changes we were making both in the dogs and our lifestyle?  Well one of the biggest things I’m trying to avoid is Genetically Modified Organisms a.k.a. GMO’s.

Unfortunately soy makes the list of the top 10 genetically modified foods.

Many thanks to Donna, from Donna and the Dogs to alerting me to this.

GMO’s are very, very bad.  You can read more about them as well as find non-GMO brands here.

More to come.

Lessons of Love – Author’s Note

I’m so happy that I can teach my grandchildren to be respectful of animals.  I feel it is my responsibility as a dog owner and animal advocate to educate whenever possible.  As you know, some adults are a real hard sell, but I’m a firm believer that the youth of today will make the change I want to see for animals.

One of my favorite pictures with my grandson and the dogs.

One of my favorite pictures with my grandson and the dogs.

And I’m starting in my own backyard.

Let Me Take You Down…To Funky Town – Update

Thank you for all your kind words, I really appreciate the support.  Part of it is I sometimes feel like I don’t know what to write about and I think on those days, I’m going to have to give myself permission to skip a post, or throw out a photo.

Every day doesn’t have to be a chapter of a book, right?

That’s it for me!  I hope you have a great weekend.  Many, many thanks to our friends at 2 Brown Dawgs for co-hosting the Follow-Up Friday blog hop,




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Lessons of Love

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My little grandchildren were over on Sunday for our traditional St. Patrick’s day dinner.  My grandson is five and my granddaughter is two.

They’re both a little shy with the dogs when they first come in and truthfully I can’t blame them.  I mean to put it into their perspective the dogs look to them like a bull or horse look to us.

And if I saw a bull or horse running full at me, I’d whimper a little bit too, even if my Daddy were holding me and telling me I was okay.

But once the dogs settle down, the kids are very comfortable around them.

Which doesn’t mean I don’t watch them, I’m constantly watching and educating them.

Watch out for the dog.

Don’t do that to the dog.

She doesn’t want you to pet her right now!

The last one was after my grandson decided he wanted to pet Delilah. Which is in and of itself a good thing.  I was in the kitchen doing something (now here’s a surprise, I can’t remember what) when he made the announcement, “I’m going to pet her.”

The assumption is if I’m in the kitchen and both dogs are with me, I’m probably working with food.  Delilah can get a little snarky around food, so my eyes were focused on the interaction.

He proceeded to stroke his hand down her back and then back up, moving her fur in a way she is only accustomed to when she is being toweled.

Delilah shifted slightly to her right.  He moved with her and continued his stroking.

Delilah moved again, again he moved with her.

Delilah barked and walked away.

At which point I said, “She doesn’t want you to pet her right now.”

He decided he would then pet Sampson.

I took the opportunity to explain to him that dogs cannot speak to us and tell us that they do not like something, instead they might bark at us like Delilah did.

I also showed him Sampson’s teeth and said, do you see these big teeth?  If you continue to do something a dog doesn’t like, the dog might bite you.  And that would really hurt.  Then I showed him a scar I have from a dog bite and explained that I didn’t get it from either Sampson or Delilah, but we should still be respectful about what dogs need and how they speak to us.

A few moments later my grandson had taken off the door-sized magnet of Sampson that I have on my refrigerator and was showing it to Sampson.

IMG_4497 I heard him say, “This was when you went to the beach in North Carolina Sampson when you had little teeth.”

It was a cute ending to our lesson of love.

It’s not just a lesson of love to prevent my grandchildren from being bitten, it’s also a lesson of love for my pets.  To be their voice and not put them in a position where they are forced to speak for themselves.

What types of lessons of love do you teach your little friends?

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